Hello

I am about to start my Masters course and I have to choose between Old Norse and Sagas or Romanticism and Victorian poetry modules.
The problem is I see myself doing research into Mythology and Folklore after my Master, whereas I have never, ever studied a germanic language. I am also very much in love with the Romantics and it is a subject I have studies quite extensively.
What troubles me mostly is that my Uni (Durham, UK) has a very strong Medieval dept. and it's a great chance for me to broaden my horizons. So the question is: do I take the road less travelled (Old Norse) and broaden my horizons, or do I stick to what I know and do well (Romanticism)?

Any advise is welcome, I am quite desperate!

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Hello Elissavet,

I don't feel I can give you actual advice because this is such a personal decision; however I can say that during my Masters and final year BA module choices, I had to take subjects which were not my first choice - in fact they had never even occured to me as topics. At the time I was very p'd off, but now I am very glad I took them. My research interest has gone in a slightly different direction, which is quite unique. I'm sure exposure to areas I knew nothing about and which seemed unrelated to my interests has helped me towards this. By breaking my path - which was a fashionable one at the time - I have been able to be more original in my thinking.

You may find people with the opposite story to mine. In fact I can think of a colleague who says that her PhD thesis was the conclusion to her Masters thesis, and that her Masters thesis concluded her final year undergrad dissertation. She was funded for both Masters and PhD - so sticking to the path has obviously worked for her.

This may seem a bit controversial but sometimes when I have a dilema like this I toss a coin for it. If I don't like the answer I get, then I know which way to go.

Best of luck.

Thank you for your reply!
I'm really confused about it though, I don't think coin tossing will work, lol!

I know nothing of poetry and literature etc - I am currently reading sookie stackhouse books which shows the depth of my knowledge! (great relief from scientific journals though!)

I'd personally go for the old norse stuff cos it sounds cool haha! I'd far rather be doing stuff on Thor and Skoll than boring romanticism stuff (I don't know what victorian romanticism is, but I'm imagining poems about women showing their ankles)

Hi Elissavet - go for Old Norse! The sagas and eddas are absolutely incredible - give it a few weeks and you'll be completely hooked. Don't worry about the language aspect - that will come, or you might choose a thesis topic that doesn't really require in-depth language analysis.

But more importantly - the world needs as many dead-language scholars as it can get. In the past five years my university has shut down Old Norse and Old English, probably to make room for more MBA courses or some such rubbish.

Best of luck!